


The Seven Day Siege

by ScientistSalarian



Category: Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: Action & Romance, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, F/M, Some Humor
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-05
Updated: 2017-09-16
Packaged: 2018-12-24 02:22:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12002949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScientistSalarian/pseuds/ScientistSalarian
Summary: This is a canon-divergent fic where instead of the Pathfinder boarding the Archon's ship, the Archon takes the fight to the Nexus. Non-Pathfinder Amara Ryder is awakened amidst the commotion and finds herself fighting alongside Kandros. Circumstances quickly complicate matters as they find themselves falling for each other while battling far more dangerous situations than they had bargained for.





	1. Chapter 1

The blinding ball of electric fire coupled by a deafening bang shook the entire med-bay of the Hyperion like an earthquake. The walls rattled as impact after impact peppered the outer walls of the Nexus. The cries and screams of confused and terrified humanity were now interspersed by the sounds of various alarms. The life support systems on the already damaged stasis pods were going haywire and the doctors frantically rushed to try and gather any information they could on the state of the people inside. A deeper alarm blared over the top of the chaos and red lights flashed ominously. It could only mean one thing, the Nexus itself had taken a direct hit from something and there had been a hull breach. Between the Hyperion’s alarm systems and the emergency systems wailing from the Nexus itself, it was nearly impossible to hold a conversation, much less figure out what was going on.

Dr. Harry Carlyle held his hands against his temples as he tried desperately to concentrate amidst all the commotion. The med-bay was dim, save for the pulsing red lights, and he surmised that they were now operating on minimal emergency power. He scanned the stasis pods for any signs that the life within hadn’t been extinguished by the power surge. He noticed the lights on a single pod were still glowing and he immediately rushed to try and open it. The other doctors were doing the same with any pod in the cryo-bay that looked as though it could be safely opened. Harry looked at the machinery and silently hoped that if anyone of these could be opened successfully, that it would be this one. The occupant of the pod in question was Amara Ryder, the brother of Pathfinder Aric Ryder. Dr. Carlyle began the process of opening the pod when he was interrupted by the sound of someone running urgently into the med-bay.

Dr. Carlyle turned around to find himself face-to-face with Tiran Kandros; head of the militia. The two only knew each other in passing but he figured if anyone would have answers, it would be the authoritative looking turian. Kandros stood for a moment to catch his breath and Dr. Carlyle returned to the matter at hand with Amara’s stasis pod. Kandros was covered in heavy armor and hadn’t removed his helmet. It was an ominous sign that hadn’t been lost on the human crew. Kandros looked around assessing the damage before he finally spoke. “The Nexus has been taking sustained fire from a Kett fleet and there’s been a hull breach near the Hyperion. We advise that everyone in this area wear their full vac-suits with life support enabled. We don’t know how much damage we’ve taken, how much of our air supply has been compromised, and even where exactly we’ve been hit. Power is limited throughout the station and right now we’re just doing our best to keep everyone breathing.”

The doctor looked at him wide-eyed. If their only goal at this point was to make sure people were still breathing, the situation was far worse than he had originally imagined. “We’re trying to get our people out of these pods. If we lose power completely, they’ll surely die.” He looked over at Amara’s pod nervously as it was closer to opening. With every passing moment, the grim reality that they were about to lose even more people began to set in. 

“You do what you need to do for your people, but know that time is not on our side. Additionally, we believe that the Kett have some sort of new weapon.” Kandros informed the doctor somberly. “We think they’ve somehow managed to weaponize the Scourge. We’ve seen traced of dark matter residue seeping through the walls of places that sustained heavy fire. Our scientists say without comprehensive tests we don’t know for sure but their preliminary scans show that what we’re seeing is of the same composition as the bits of the Scourge that we’ve been able to study.”

Harry Carlyle briefly considered climbing into a spare stasis pod. The last thing he needed to hear amongst all of this chaos were the words “weaponized” and “Scourge” in the same sentence. Before he could contemplate just how awful that could be for their chances at survival, Amara’s pod appeared ready to be opened. He slowly removed the lid and Amara sat up gingerly. She blinked a few times as she tried to focus. Her eyes were watery and her ears felt plugged. She felt as though her head was submerged deep under water and the sensation began to disorient her. She swayed precariously back and forth until her vision finally returned to her. Her ears slowly began to open but she still felt as though she was mentally trapped in a thick haze. The first figure she was able to make out through the was the familiar face of the doctor. The second figure was clearly turian but through his helmet she was just barely able to see his face. The flashing lights were not helping with her ability to focus and once her ears finally adjusted, she cursed her ability to hear now that she was keenly aware of the thunderous noise echoing throughout the room.

Amara still hadn’t regained much of her mental faculties despite being able to see and hear. She felt light-headed and almost giddy as she tried to think of something to say. She looked up at the two of them with a great big smile not fully grasping their dire situation despite the audible warnings. It was as though her mind was disconnected from her senses and she sat there trying her best not to giggle. “Awww Harry, you brought me a handsome turian to wake up to!” She squinted at him trying to make out his facial features better. “At least I think he is, I can barely see his face. Can you turn a light on? Like, not one of those blinking lights but a real light.” She felt slightly disoriented still and wasn’t entirely sure if she’d even said the words out loud or just thought them silently to herself. 

“Even through all the racket, I can hear you through the helmet.” Kandros informed her. He couldn’t help but be amused by her lack of awareness of her surroundings. Suddenly the Hyperion shook once again and Amara toppled out of her pod into a heap on the floor. It was enough to knock her senses back in sync with her brain and she suddenly stared wide-eyed at the two men. She took a deep breath and she noticed a sharp twinge in her forehead when she did so. She didn’t make any mention of it however and she scrambled her way back on her feet. She could smell the pungent odor of something burning and in the distance she was certain she was hearing gunfire.

“What the hell is going on?” Amara cried out in shock. Just moments before she’d been lazily waking up from her slumber and now here she was in a situation she didn’t understand in any way. Dr. Carlyle and Kandros helped steady her and Amara tried her best to figure out how to mentally prepare for whatever was going on. She felt anxiety building in her chest and it gripped her, constricting her breath. Where at first she felt loose and limber, she now felt her entire body clenched tight as a drum.

Kandros began to explain to her what little information they did have and the doctor rummaged around for Amara’s suit and helmet. Amara stared up at Kandros in pure disbelief as he tried to catch her up on everything that had happened. Amara shook her head defiantly as though not accepting his words as the truth would somehow have a measurable impact on their circumstances. Dr. Carlyle returned fully suited up and he tossed Amara her things. As Amara proceeded to work her way into her suit she looked down at the floor around her stasis pod and noticed something alarming.

“What is that?” She asked slowly. “That sort of black and blue glowing stuff. It looks like it’s coming from my pod. Or underneath it.” Without proper lighting she couldn’t be sure but it definitely looked like nothing that was native to the Milky Way. 

Kandros knelt down to get a closer look and scanned the substance with his omni-tool. “Remember how I told you that the Kett had weaponized the Scourge?” Kandros began slowly.

Dr. Carlyle shot Kandros a look as though he already knew the contents of the rest of that sentence. “Please tell me this isn’t the Scourge melting its way through our entire ship.” 

“Unfortunately I believe that’s exactly what that is. It may also have come in contact with you Amara while you were being revived.” Kandros warned.

“Do you feel any different?” Dr. Carlyle was concerned. There hadn’t been any studies done yet about how direct contact with the Scourge would effect the human body. Up until this point, no one ever had and they had chalked it up to one little smidgen of luck in this hellish galaxy.

Amara briefly thought about her growing headache but she decided once again that it wasn’t important. Headaches were a common side-effect of waking up from stasis so she did her best to pay it no mind. She assured them both that she was fine and they went on to assist the others in the med-bay with their suits. 

“Grab any weapons you have and get out of here, the Hyperion needs to be evacuated immediately,” Kandros called out through the corridor. “Your hull has been compromised, it’s not safe to stay here.” 

“What about the rest of our people in stasis! We can’t just leave them!” A female doctor responded furiously. “I swore an oath to get these people here safely and I’m sure as hell not going to abandon them!” 

Kandros immediately felt for the woman but he couldn’t advise her to stay either. “Do what you have to do but know that there is a very good chance that staying here will only lead to the loss of a valuable human doctor.” He hated speaking to her like that but he needed her to know that her potential sacrifice might just be in vain. If the ship was as badly damaged as he suspected, the people in the pods were most likely already dead. 

The woman narrowed her eyes at Kandros and Amara walked over to her and put her hand on the distressed doctor’s shoulder. “Come with us. I don’t fully understand what’s going on but at this point we need to focus on the people that are alive and need medical attention.” Amara still only knew what little information Kandros had told her but at this point she figured that any medical personnel would be considered vital.

Kandros was immediately grateful to Amara for talking sense into the woman. They needed to gather whatever resources they had and regroup. Scores of people were now rushing their way onto the tram to make their way to the main operations hub of the Nexus. “I’m going to stay back and make sure everyone gets out of here safely,” Doctor Carlyle said earnestly. “You two go on ahead and get to safety.” 

Amara nodded and Kandros led her to the tram. They were packed in shoulder-to-shoulder and chest-to-chest as the crew of the Hyperion, and those they had managed to revive, hurriedly tried to escape the doomed vessel. Amara looked up at Kandros and smiled although he could barely see her face through the blue tint of her helmet. 

“Well, this is certainly one way to get to know someone,” she said wryly as she realized that she was plastered firmly enough against the turian’s body that she was unable to move at all.

“It certainly is.” He answered. 

“I’m Amara Ryder by the way.” She didn’t know why she felt now was the appropriate time for polite small-talk, but at least it was a distraction from her already frazzled nerves. “I never did get your name. Also what was a turian doing on the Hyperion?” She asked the question genially hoping it didn’t come across as accusatory.

“Tiran Kandros. I’m in charge of the militia here on the Nexus. I came down to the Hyperion to inspect the damage since our systems are all offline,” he explained. 

“Do you know who is attacking us?” Amara’s tone was a mixture of concerned but also curious. She only knew what little Aric had been able to tell her when they would occasionally speak through SAM’s link.

“Do you know about the Kett?” Kandros asked.

“A little. Aric was able to talk to me a bit through my SAM implant but I don’t know much about them. I do know that they’re definitely the kind of assholes that would attack a station full of civilians though.” Amara sounded almost annoyed at the notion of having to deal with a species that would engage in such things. Their conversation was cut short by the tram screeching to a halt at the docking bay. With minimal power the tram was no longer a smooth ride. The short trip had been slow and jerky and the sudden stop was an unwelcome end to the whole ordeal.

“You should continue on to the Operations Center. They’ll be able to take care of you there,” Kandros ordered. He wanted to make sure Dr. Carlyle’s efforts to revive her hadn’t all been for nothing.

“Like hell I will.” Amara responded indignantly. “I want to see the bastards that most likely just killed the rest of my people in stasis.” 

Kandros could tell from her roaring tone that arguing would only belabor things and time was of the essence. He motioned for her and Amara followed after him. When the two of them stepped off the tram, they were entirely unprepared for the sight before their eyes. There was a Kett ship that looked as though it had crash landed into one of the docking bays. An intense fire-fight was raging between a mixture of Milky Way species, a species she didn’t recognize but assumed was the “angara” that Aric had told her about, and on the other side, the Kett. They were even more grotesque than Aric had described them as. Amara felt herself shudder at the sight of them.

The turian pushed Amara down roughly behind cover as he realized that they had a perfect line of sight to the enemy. He mumbled an apology for having shoved her so forcefully but Amara didn’t seem to care. She was fixated on the battle that was being waged no more than 10 meters away from them. 

The sounds of gunfire and biotics pummeled their eardrums and Amara’s head began to pound. She closed her eyes trying to will the pain away. “What’s the plan?” Amara asked the question through gritted teeth as she tried her hardest to remain stoic towards the ever-growing ache behind her eyes.

Kandros removed the gun that was strapped to his hip and looked down the scope, trying to decide on what would be the best target and what he had the best chance of hitting with a clean shot. Once they fired, they no longer had the element of surprise on their side so he wanted to make the first shot count. Amara didn’t have a weapon on her but she was confident in her biotic abilities. She watched as both sides appeared to be evenly matched, trading casualty for casualty. Her heart raced as she feared for her people. “I’m going to try to snipe them one by one as they exit their ship. Do you have a weapon on you?” Kandros’ voice broke her from her dissociated fixation on the firefight.

“No but I’ve got biotics.” Suddenly Amara felt focused as she realized that she was soon going to be joining in the fray.

“Good, whatever you have that covers the widest range, throw that into the middle there.” Kandros pointed and continued, “That’s where they’re the most densely concentrated. You’ll take a bunch of them out and the rest will be distracted wondering where the hell it came from. Should buy our people some time.” Kandros explained. “And it will buy me some time to shoot as many as I can.”

Amara figured it was as good a plan as any and she trusted the expertise of someone the Nexus leadership felt confident in leading the entire Nexus militia. Kandros counted down from three and he fired at the first Kett to emerge from the ship. Amara gathered all the biotic strength she could muster and released a warp field into a group of about 30 Kett. She found the more biotic power she released the more it released the pain in her forehead. She let out a visceral battle cry as she bared down and released even more energy into the field. She felt a satisfying sense of release as she drained herself of all of her biotic energy.

“Amara, what are you doing? Stop! You’re going to get us killed too!” Kandros grabbed at her arms and forced her to turn towards him. “What the hell was that?” Kandros was shouting at her in sheer terror. He had never seen someone use biotics quite the way she just had. The result of her over-eager biotic release was a warp field that threatened to pull half of the Nexus fighters’ front lines into it along with the enemies. Amara felt weak and she felt her knees begin to shake. She had been crouching down in cover but now her legs felt more liquid than solid and she collapsed into a heap on the floor, unaware of just how much havoc she’d managed to wreak. Kandros looked down at her concerned but now that he’d given their position away, he couldn’t worry about her at the moment. He took aim and one by one began to methodically take down the Kett, one after another. He watched as his Apex teams finally gained the upper hand. A large krogan fighter alongside a rather terrified looking salarian managed to lob a couple grenades into the fray that took out five or six Kett fighters each. He was proud of how his teams were working together but he didn’t feel as though he could celebrate quite yet. As dangerous as Amara’s biotics had been, Kandros couldn’t deny that they had taken out far more of the Kett forces far quicker than anything else.

With a few well placed shots he was able to burst the fuel tank on their ship. “Hit the ship now!” He called out to his people across the floor of the docking bay. One more well placed grenade was thrown and the entire Kett ship exploded. Kandros ran from his position to be closer to his strike teams and Amara sat up and looked around in a daze. Slowly her memories came back to her and she peered out from behind cover. She could see the wake of destruction from both the smoldering remains of the Kett ship, to the slowly dying warp field. As the bodies began to drop from where they’d been floating she noticed that in amongst the kett were a human, a turian and a salarian. She felt as though her stomach had been ripped right out of her body. Tears began to stream down her face as she realized that in her moment of triumph over her pain and the Kett, she had managed to kill three of her own. She instinctively went to wipe her tears forgetting that she was wearing a mask. She closed her eyes tightly trying to squeeze the tears from her eyes and focus on the floor of the docking bay. A numbness overtook her as she looked on at the carnage.

The floor resembled something that looked more at place in a war movie than on a station that had been modeled after the Citadel. There were bodies from both sides lying in pools of blood. The air smelled metallic and distantly of gunpowder. Even through her mask the smell was stifling. The once pristine floor was now scorched and gouged and stained. She watched as Kandros and the other Nexus fighters slowly vanquished the rest of the Kett. She refrained from using her biotics again despite knowing that any little bit of fire power would help. She was paralyzed by the fear that she might get more people killed and in that moment she felt far more helpless than she had ever felt in her life. She sat behind cover and listened to the ratatat of machine gun fire, the heavy booming of shotgun blasts and the electrifying jolts of biotic charges. Finally the rates of fire began to cease and Kandros felt it was safe to return to Amara. 

“Are you ok?” Kandros’ voice was lower and softer now that he wasn’t shouting over the sounds of gunfire. 

“No.” It was a simple answer stated in a detached voice. 

Kandros put his arm around her shoulder. Lets get you somewhere safe and you can all me what happened back there.” Kandros was still concerned about her biotics but he didn’t want her to feel any worse than she already did. They ducked into one of the tech labs and Kandros locked the door behind them. He scanned the room and when he deemed it was safe he removed his helmet and helped Amara out of hers. When he had her helmet off he could see her tear stained face and immediately he felt a pang of guilt in his chest. He knew in that moment that she had been aware of the collateral damage she’d caused and he felt horribly for her.

“I…think there’s something wrong with my implant,” Amara began by stating the obvious. “I just don’t know what.”

“I’m afraid I know next to nothing about biotics. But I do know that having that kind of power that the enemy doesn’t know about might just be our greatest asset, if you’re able to control it.” Kandros regretted the words almost as soon as they left his mouth. He sounded just like the military brass that he so despised back on Palaven, heartless and harsh. 

“I just killed three of our own fucking people and you’re thinking about using me as an ‘asset’?” Amara’s voice was shrill and laced with contempt. “How fucking dare you!” She was shaking with anger and she nearly punched Kandros in the jaw. She stepped up to him and they were nearly touching. “Can I have a moment to process or do you need me to just be a mindless weapon for you to use?” She spat the words at him as though they were offensively bitter to her tongue.

‘I’m so sorry.” Kandros hung his head shamefully. He hadn’t meant to be so brash, but it was ingrained in him from years of turian military training that winning the battle comes before all else. Here before him though was a traumatized woman and all he had thought of was how he could use her as an “asset”. He looked at her and his mandibles flared and pulsed as he wracked his brain for anything he might be able to say to rectify things. “The turian hierarchy doesn’t exactly teach tactfulness in a time of war but that doesn’t excuse me saying that to you.” His voice was somber and low as he spoke. “Look, I know you didn’t mean to kill those people back there. Sometimes…things like that just happen in a war. You’re not a murderer, you didn’t do it on purpose and I can already see that you’re beating yourself up over it. You did what you had to do to save as many people as you could.” He placed his hands on her shoulders and looked her in the eyes. “I’m not trying to be cold-hearted, Amara but I don’t think this siege is over and we have limited resources at our disposal. All I’m asking is that if you can, fight alongside us the best way you can. I know I shouldn’t ask that of you but right now I have to. When this is all over, if we’re both still alive, you can kick my ass for putting you through this and I’ll deserve every lick of it.” 

Amara’s face went from livid, to understanding, to resigned. She knew he was right and she knew he wasn’t trying to be dismissive of what happened out on the docking bay. “I’m not going to kick your ass Kandros.” She signed and then continued. “When I woke up, I had this pounding headache. I figured it was just a shitty feeling from sleeping for 600 years right? Then out there, when I released my biotic energy, it also released the pain in my head. The more I let go, the better I felt and that’s how it got out of hand. I promise if I’m going to fight, I’ll try my best to keep that in check but I still don’t know the extent of the damage to my implant. I don’t know how much I can control it so can we use me as a last resort. We don’t need to fight the Kett just to have me kill us all anyway.” Her eyes were glazed over as she accepted that this was certainly not going to be her last foray into battle.

“That sounds like a safe course of action.” Kandros agreed with her assessment and he was glad that they hadn’t come to blows over his callousness. Amara clenched her fists as she tried to keep her composure but instead she simply began to cry once more. Kandros wrapped his arms around her and stroked her hair as she sobbed into his chest. He wished more than anything that he had forced her to go to the operations center instead of allowing her to follow along with him. He felt blindsided by the guilt that overtook him but all he could do was hold her against him and comfort her. Her long black was a tangled mess and her deep green eyes were red and swollen. He wiped her tears away with a single talon and cupped her face in his hands. “We’re going to get through this.” He didn’t know that for sure of course, but he felt it was better to offer her some sort of hope to cling on to. 

Amara nodded and finally loosened her grip on the turian’s waist. She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. She was doing her best to prepare herself for what was to come. She pursed her lips and stood up straight trying to appear more confident than she actually was. She began to feel a burning desire to redeem herself creep into her mind. If she could use her biotics to help save the rest of the Nexus, then perhaps she’d feel like the ones she’d killed hadn’t died in vain. She let that singular sense of purpose push all other thoughts out of her head. She nodded to Kandros and put her helmet back on. Kandros did the same as they heard the now all-too-familiar sound of gunfire growing ever closer to their position overhead. Kandros squeezed her hand for a moment before unlocked the door to the lab. She grasped his hand briefly and braced herself for what was to come.

“Are you ready?” Kandros’ question only had one answer. Amara nodded at him and they stepped out from behind the door. They knew that somewhere above them, the Kett were shooting and they tried to follow the noise in hopes that they could intercede before it was too late. 

What they saw when they finally found the source of the commotion was a group of about 40 Kett. Amongst them they had people lined up as their prisoners. The groups of prisoners were comprised of every race that called the Nexus their home in Andromeda. At regular intervals, the Kett were beginning to escort groups onto escape pods.

“Shit, what do you think they’re doing with them?” Amara murmured. “Do you think they’re taking them somewhere?”

“Most likely they’re taking them to the Archon’s ship or an exaltation facility.” Kandros replied. The two of them looked on as the Kett took group after group onto the pods with rifles pointed at each prisoner’s head. “Has Aric told you about exaltation?”

“No but it doesn’t sound pleasant.” Amara whispered under her breath. 

“Long story short, it’s how they make more Kett.” Kandros answered in a hushed tone. 

Amara felt rage building and burning inside of her. “They’re going to turn out people into those fucking…things?” She nearly screamed the words as she imagined the horrors of what exaltation might entail.

Kandros hated to constantly be the barber of bad news but from everything he knew about the Kett, that was the most probable outcome for the prisoners. “It’s what they do Amara,” was the only response he could muster.

“They’ll fucking pay for this.” Amara hissed.

“You’re damn right they will.” Kandros snarled in return. “We’ll make sure of it.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A plan is formed, allies are made, and a peculiar relationship develops.

“Worst case scenario…can we turn them back?” Amara was nervously looking around as the Kett milled about, choosing people in groups to drag onto the escape pods. 

“Not as far as we know.” Kandros was wracking his brain for a plan. He desperately wanted to find the survivors from the firefight and come up with some way to fight back before the Kett could take anymore of their people. He quickly realized that numbers weren’t the name of the game here. They had a very limited number of trained soldiers and an ever more limited number of ships. Strategy was going to be key here but without knowing the fate of the rest of the Nexus, he was going to have to rely on a lot of guesswork and luck. Neither of these things made him feel very confident about their odds.

“So do we just let them take our people?” Amara was growing agitated. Her headache was returning and now that she knew that using her biotics would cure it, she found herself torn between wanting release from the physical pain, and worry that she may hurt more innocent people. She tapped her foot absentmindedly as thoughts raced through he mind.

Kandros could tell from her body language that she was thinking about doing something rash. He put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed gently. “We’ll do something, but we have to be smart about it. Right now we have just the two of us here and we’re no good being outnumbered ten to one.” 

“Well what if we just go and get ourselves captured and then fight them on their own damn ship. We still have people here who can fight but if we’re on their ship, maybe it will get more of them off the Nexus to defend the Archon and give our people a reprieve!” Amara knew it sounded crazy but her nerves were past the point of being frazzled and she was just shouting out anything that entered her brain. At this point, anything sounded like a good idea and if it meant risking everything to board the Archon’s ship, she was willing to make that sacrifice. She felt like her mind was clouded in a haze and the only thing that mattered was defeating this enemy. 

“Amara.” Kandros scarcely knew where to begin. He almost didn’t believe she was being serious. “There would be just the two of us against the rest of them. Exactly how do you propose we get out of there alive? Or is living through this thing not part of the deal. I’m not against a noble sacrifice on principle but it needs to be worth it.” 

“We’re not sacrificing ourselves! No way. I’ll use my biotics to kill whatever tries to kill us first and have SAM try to find a weakness in their defenses and see if we can’t sabotage the thing from the inside.” Amara’s tone was curt and to the point, which only made Kandros grow more concerned. Just a half an hour ago she never wanted to use her biotics again, now here she was proposing a possible suicide mission where her biotics might be their best hope of survival. He assessed the situation around them and realized that they had one of two options; go back the way they came and hope they don’t run into Kett reinforcements while trying to regroup with reinforcements of their own, or go along with Amara’s harebrained plan. Kandros didn’t revel in either choice and he simply watched in helpless disbelief as yet another escape pod was shot towards the Archon’s ship.

Amara looked at Kandros hoping for some semblance of comfort but he reflected her same defeated stance. “I don’t have a better idea right now. I wish I did but I don’t.” Amara sounded distant as the words just meandered from her lips. 

“Honestly, neither do I.” Kandros took a deep breath bracing himself for what’s to come. “Are you able to have SAM get in touch with the Tempest?” 

“Yeah, why?” Amara’s curiosity was piqued.

“If we do your crazy plan, we kill as many of those bastards as we can, save however many of our people that we can, and hope that your brother and his crew can extract us and the civilians alive once they get here.” Kandros was genuinely shocked at the words coming out of his mouth. He didn’t understand why he was even considering this except for the fact that he felt they had no choice. He usually preferred to at least go in with a four man team but they didn’t have that luxury at the moment so he was talking himself into a boarding party of two. His mandibles clicked against the side of his mouth nervously as he tried not to talk himself out of it now that he’d verbally opted in.

“Wait, you said ‘us and the civilians’. Am I not a civilian anymore?” Amara was tickled by the notion. Perhaps she truly was losing her mind from all the stress but suddenly she began to giggle.

Kandros found it utterly absurd to be laughing at a time like this but her mood was infectious and he laughed along with her. “Nothing like waking up after 600 years to an alien race trying to kill you and then you find you’re accidentally are part of the militia now just because you tried to stop that from happening. No good deed goes unpunished.” 

“I’ll say. I will also need to have a word with you about your recruiting policies when this is all over.” Amara’s wry little grin shone through her helmet like a glimmer of hope. There was something soothing about her ability to make light of their situation. 

Kandros simply brushed against her gently and took her hand into his. “You ready?” 

“No.” Amara wasn’t laughing now. She was petrified but she was doing her best to stymie her fears. “But, I doubt I ever will be so let’s just do this before they can do anymore damage. And SAM, let Aric know that we will need him to get us the fuck out of here whenever he can. Also that his sister is alive. Also that she’s about to be captured. Willingly. You know what, you decide what details are necessary SAM. I’m freaking out over here.”

“Affirmative. I will be in touch with the Pathfinder shortly.” SAM said in her head. 

Kandros and Amara looked at each other, each one silently willing the other to come up with a better plan at the last minute. When neither one did, Amara stepped out from their hiding spot and waved her arms wildly as she made her way towards the Kett. Kandros followed behind her but opted to make less of a show of his surrender. 

“Hey assholes!” Amara shouted. “You threw a party without us!”

Kandros grabbed her by her shoulders and hissed “You want them to take us alive, not kill us on the spot!”

The prisoners faces ranged from hopeful to terrified as they tried to make sense of Amara’s display. They stared up at the two of them wishing desperately that they had shown up to do more than just insult their captors. They began to whisper amongst themselves and one of the Kett fired a warning shot into the air. “Silence!” the Kett shouted. 

“You talking to them or me?” Amara asked sarcastically. 

The Kett turned his weapon towards Amara and took a few paces towards her. Kandros raised his gun and aimed it at the Kett from behind Amara. “Don’t hurt her.” Kandros warned. 

“Or what?” It was a challenge. It was clear that the odds were not in favor of the human and the turian and the Kett wondered what exactly Kandros thought he could do. “I could easily blow her head off right now. We have more than enough humans already, the Archon won’t miss one.” 

The sound of the Kett’s threat immediately dissolved Amara’s flippancy. She tried her best not to let it show that her arrogance had all been a front. She looked for a clear shot for a biotic charge but there were too many prisoners and she didn’t dare risk it. Kandros contemplated firing as well but came to the same conclusion. He slowly lowered his weapon and placed it on the ground not wanting to tempt fate. “Don’t hurt us, just please take us alive.” Now it was Kandros’ turn to try his hand at acting. He hoped his usual level-headed tone sounded suitably scared as he laid down his weapon. He took one step towards Amara and placed his hand on her lower back.

Amara didn’t know what his next move was but she decided to go along with whatever he was doing in case he had something up his sleeve. Kandros put his free hand up in the air and looked at the Kett. “Please, just don’t separate us. We don’t know what’s going on but I don’t want to be separated from my wife. We’re both scared. Please just let us surrender. I don’t have any other weapons on me.”

Amara nearly choked when she heard the words but now she knew she had to play along. She leaned into Kandros and put her arm around his waist. “Please, just let us stay together.” She said the words with a shaking voice that faltered as she finally allowed her anxiety to seep through. At least she didn’t have to pretend to be cocky and fearless anymore but there was something altogether disconcerting about hearing Kandros act afraid. The Kett still had his shotgun aimed at her but grabbed both Amara and Kandros by the arms and escorted them to the front of the line. “Take these two off the station next if they’re so eager to surrender.” 

The larger Kett that was putting people into the pods grabbed ahold of both of them and shoved them roughly into a cramped vessel. The airlock closed behind them and they felt the pod begin to jettison towards the Archon’s ship.

“So in the course of the day I’ve killed people, joined the militia and got fake married to you?” Amara whispered to Kandros. “Any other surprises for me?”

“Sorry, our plan hinges on the two of us staying together so I had to think fast. We can get fake divorced later once our people are safe.” Kandros answered in a hushed tone. 

“Well this is the worst fake honeymoon ever, Kandros.” Amara sighed. She was joking around to try to clear the abject terror from her mind. What kind of plan was this? Allowing themselves to be captured and possibly exalted? Amara cursed herself for her foolish plan and she found herself trying her not to shake in fear. How in any way were they supposed to pull this off?

“We’re going to survive this,” Kandros said for both his benefit as well as hers. He looked around at the others that were sharing their same fate in the escape pod. There was a salarian and an asari who looked just as shaken by the events of the day as Amara was. “Hey.” Kandros whispered to them. “Are either one of you capable of fighting?” 

“Of course!” the salarian answered indignantly, “All the greatest fighters are salarian, don’t you know that?” He immediately felt bad for having been so terse though and apologized. “I’m sorry. I just don’t know what to do. I’m a geologist, I’m no soldier.” 

“I can use biotics of course but I’m a mechanic, not a fighter. I can’t probably help a little bit though!” The asari tried her best to sound cheerful but the facade was thin and the others saw through it.

Kandros wasn’t discouraged though. A scientist and a mechanic could come in handy and another biotic was still better than nothing even if untrained. “We’re planning on rescuing people and taking down this ship but we need your help. If we do the bulk of the fighting, can the two of you help us with the rest?” The asari nodded enthusiastically and the salarian begrudgingly agreed.

“Are you two military?” the asari asked. She suddenly felt a lot more hopeful about their fate.

“I’m Tiran Kandros, head of the Andromeda Initiative’s militia. Hard to tell who I am though with this damned helmet on,” he admitted. He didn’t dare remove it until he was sure the air was safe to breathe.

“And I’m Amara Ry— Amara Kandros,” she corrected herself, “Tiran’s wife. I’m…gifted…with my biotics but I’m not formally trained.” She figured it was best to keep the lie going even though there were no Kett present in the escape pod. It was best if everyone believed they were married even though she was certain they’d overheard their conversation earlier.

The hull of the escape pod made a screeching sound as it was hauled into the Archon’s ship’s docking bay by a small cruiser. The pitch dark pod was lit only by the glow of their armored suits and their tired eyes had gotten used to the dark. Suddenly the door opened, drenching the pod with stark white light. Even through their tinted helmets they found themselves squinting at the unwelcome brightness. Amara knew she had to make a choice. She could shoot a charge into the first Kett that came towards them, or wait, and hope to get a sense of how the ship was laid out before doing anything drastic as possibly spoiling their chances at a rescue. Ultimately she chose not to play her hand too early and allowed the Kett to escort her, Kandros, and their two new allies to wherever their destination was.

Amara took Kandros by the hand. She wasn’t entirely unhappy keeping up with their marital ruse. Even though she barely knew the man, Kandros was the only comfort she had at the moment and she was grateful for an excuse to be close to him. His hand was big compared to hers and she found her fingers wrapping around his large talons tightly. Her heart rate was climbing the deeper they went into the massive frigate and she felt herself getting lost in the memories of earlier in the day. The sound of the gunfire, the sight of the bodies floating helplessly through her warp field. She remembered the smell of the blood in the air and quickly forced herself to snap out of it. She couldn’t let that memory impede her judgement now. Not while she should be alert and gathering any information available to her while walking through the corridors of the alien ship. This had been her plan after all and she felt a sense of responsibility to do what she could to see it through.

Kandros could tell that Amara was struggling with the events of the day. He had served in the turian military long enough to know the telltale signs of someone who’s mind was still wrapped up in battle long after the engagement had ceased. He allowed her fingers to intertwine with his but he longed to be able to be of more comfort to her. Before he could think anymore on the matter, they were abruptly halted at what looked like a small holding cell. The Kett shoved the four of them in a heap onto the floor and activated a forcefield. The four of them untangled themselves from each other and when they deemed it was safe, finally removed their helmets. 

“Now what do we do?” the asari asked tentatively. The four of them were sitting in a circle examining each other now that they could see each other’s faces for the first time.

“We plan, and then we sleep. This might be the only shot at rest that we get and we’re going to need it.” Kandros responded with an air of authority that put the others at ease. 

“So, what’s the plan then?” The salarian seemed to take umbrage at being dragged into such a dangerous situation but part of him did like the idea of being the humble scientist that helped take down the mighty Archon. He sat up straight and attempted to appear brave. “My name is Lamin by the way.” 

“I’m Ci’ana.” The asari introduced herself and they all shook hands. It was such an oddly formal gesture considering their circumstances but it brought a sense of normalcy to their predicament. 

“So here’s the deal.” Amara figured she may as well be up front with her compatriots if there was going to be any semblance of trust. “I may have been exposed to some sort of ‘weaponized scourge’.” She made air quotes as she spoke. “It did something to my biotics. They’re super powerful now but they’re also super difficult to control so if any part of this plan has me blasting anyone with a charge…you may want to stay back.” She decided that any more detail was superfluous at the moment. She didn’t want them worrying about the collateral damage of the past when everyone needed to be focused on the present.

Kandros nodded and continued where Amara left off. “She’s basically going to be our…ace in the hole? Is that the human phrase?” Lamin and Ci’ana shrugged but Amara nodded. “Basically, she’s going to kill as many of the Kett as she can so we don’t have to. I don’t have any other weapons besides my omni-blade. Ci’ana, if you want to give your biotics a shot, now would be the time to test their strength on some live targets. Once they take us to the exaltation facility I want Amara to light the place up. Ci’ana, just help where you can, I’ll kill as many as I can too. We’ll get as many people out depending on how many Kett we have to fight. While we’re distracting the Kett, I want Lamin to gather as much scientific data as possible. We need that information just as much as we need our people back. They’ve somehow figured out a way to weaponize the scourge like Amara told you and we need whatever information you can get on that, also anything about exaltation and Kett physiology will be extremely helpful to our scientists. Once we’ve got what we came for, Amara’s going to use her SAM implant to overload the systems and hopefully we get off this ship alive.” 

Amara was stunned. Had Kandros really extrapolated that entire plan out of her half-baked idea? She couldn’t help but be impressed. The four of them hammered out details before retreating to the corners of their holding cell in an attempt to fall asleep. Kandros looked at Amara and studied her face. Her eyes had dark circles forming beneath them and her hair was a tortured mess. Kandros knew his eyes were cloudy from exhaustion and his shoulders sunk low as he slumped against the wall. Amara slid down beside him and leaned against him. He wrapped his arm around her and she rested against his shoulder. He wanted to ask her about how she was doing but her body language said everything he needed to know. He held her tightly and she melted against him. 

“Thank you” Amara murmured. “For everything you’ve done for me today.” 

“Don’t thank me yet.” Kandros always did have a hard time accepting gratitude and now was no different. “I’m just doing what I can.”

“So, do you always let strange women curl up in your arms after a long day of trying not to die?” She was already almost half asleep but she couldn’t help but tease him a bit. She knew next to nothing about him but he had stuck by her side since she awaking from stasis and he certainly wasn’t hard to look at either.

“This is definitely a first,” Kandros admitted, “Not an unwelcome first though.” He repositioned her so he was holding her more comfortably and she let out a tired sigh. He liked the feeling of her weight against him and he closed his eyes for the first time in what seemed like forever.

She snuggled in close to him and he lightly brushed his mouth against the top of her head. He didn’t know if it was just their desperate situation or if he really was developing feelings for her but in that moment, he wanted nothing more than to feel the rise and fall of her breathing as his arms wrapped around her tighter. He tried not to dwell on thoughts of his emotions however. He needed his mind to be focused on one thing and one thing only if they were going to be successful on their mission. “Good night fake husband,” he heard her whisper.

“Good night fake wife.”


End file.
